Is the school system working? No, according to Tod Maffin of Vancouver, a leading communications expert, and keynote speaker at the Mighty Peace Teachers’ Convention last Thursday. Although Maffin said he doesn’t have an intimate knowledge of school systems, he spoke as an employer, and said the current system is killing the future of education.

He compares it to the Rock Tumbler educational toy. The toy creates polished, rounded rocks from jagged stones. He believes through this process, the rocks lose their uniqueness.

He said the school system in its current form doesn’t cater to independent learning. “Students learn enough math to balance a pocket book, enough history to play Trivial Pursuit, and enough English to communicate,” he said. “Turn by turn, day by day, the rock is scraped…the real stone is scraped away.”

As an employer, he looks for the “jagged rocks,” not the jack-of-all-trades, but the ones who are highly specialized. “I look for people who can do one thing they know extraordinarily well,” he said. “We need more rocks with sharp edges.”

Despite his success in radio production and web development, he said the government sees him as a failure because he dropped out of high school. He was frustrated he couldn’t learn what interested him, and spent his days at libraries learning on his own instead, and later graduating from university.

According to Maffin, industries are looking for highly-specialized people. Gone are the days of being hired in the mailroom and working up for 30 years to a managerial position.

Read the rest of this article at the Daily Herald Tribune.

If you expect your brand to be found online a year from now, you must attend this fast-paced, information-packed online webinar.

Date/Time: November 23, 2011 — 11am Pacific (2pm Eastern)

To be covered on the webinar:

• A Five Minute “Beginner’s Guide” to Doing Business on Google+
• Creating Your Brand’s Page on Google+
• Migrating Your Facebook “Fans” to Your New G+ Page
• Moderating Your G+ Brand Page
• Using Live Video Hangouts to Engage With Your Fans
• Integrating Your Google+ Marketing Efforts Into Your Existing Web Site
• Adding Compelling Media (Photos/Videos) to Your Page
• Automating Content Publishing to Google+
• The Seven Critical Keys to Marketing Your Brand on Google+
• Plus, a live Q&A session, and more…

BONUS: If you register today, you’ll receive a detailed Negative Response Strategy flowchart card which you can print out and know how to respond if your brand is attacked online.

100% money-back guarantee.
Start your brand page on Google+.
If you don’t see results, you’ll get a 100% no-questions-asked refund.

Subscribe to receive notifications of future events by Tod

Tod Maffin is one of North America’s leading experts on effective social media strategies for business. He speaks at more than 40 conferences around the world each year, is a published author, and was once called “one of Canada’s most influential futurists” by the Globe and Mail’s Report on Business.

Triple Your Brand’s Facebook Visibility Using Edgerank — Without Spending a Dime

So you’ve got a Facebook page for your brand, but it’s just not getting the traction you keep hearing about. You post something to your fan page and, a minute later, it’s already dropped off the bottom of your fans’ News Feeds.

There’s a reason for that. And it looks like this:

E=u_ew_ed_e

That is the algorithm behind Facebook’s most viewed page — the News Feed. And once you decode and understand this remarkably simple equation, your brand will become immediately more visible and will stay on your fans’ news feed longer. This algorithm — called EdgeRank — is based on three factors: the relationship between the creator and user, engagement with the post (likes, comments, etc.), and timeliness.

In this fast-paced seminar, Tod reveal how social media pros use Edgerank to keep their brand much more visible on Facebook’s all-important News Feed. Content will include:

• Which day has the strongest engagement for your specific industry?
• What is the best time of day to post for maximum visibility (and why 90% of brands are doing it wrong)
• What content generates the strongest engagement? Photos? Videos? Status updates?
• Tod’s highly effective PEDB (Praise/Escalate/Delete/Ban) flow-strategy for managing your brand’s social media presence
• How to improve your Facebook brand page’s Edgerank
• How to check your Edgerank online
• What types of statistics you should check to ensure an improved Edgerank
• Examples of highly relevant content that will boost your Edgerank
• Using Facebook’s Question to dramatically increase your visibility on the News Feed
• Best practices in encouraging your fans to create content for you

This presentation can run from 45 minutes to two hours, depending on your agenda, and can include a full Q&A session and interactive demonstration with Internet access.

Companies working in the B2B space are already using LinkedIn as a key driver of solid leads to reach business targets. Why aren’t you exploiting this incredibly effective, yet under-used tool? Your competitors are!

In this information-packed and interactive half-day MasterClass session, digital marketing strategist Tod Maffin will show you everything you need to know to start generating measurably profitable B2B leads entirely within LinkedIn.

This is a roll-up-your-sleeves, half-day session (length can be altered to fit your agenda) where Tod will walk you how to generate, actionable real leads. Here’s how a sample half-day will flow:

9:00 a.m.

• Everything You Need to Know About LinkedIn in 108 Seconds
• Building Your Profile to Attract Prospects
• The Eight Top Mistakes People Make On Their LinkedIn Profile
• Finding Out Who’s Stalking Your Profile
• Three Examples of Perfect Profiles From Your Industry
• Reaching Out: Getting Strategic Testimonials to Gain Traction

9:45 a.m.

• Interactive Q&A session (live demo on screen)
• In-Room Stretch Break

10:00 a.m.

• The Right Way to Connect People to Your Network
• Adding Leads to Your Network Even If You Don’t Know Them
• Qualifying Leads: Reaching Out to the Right People
• Reaching Buyers Through Your Network
• Reaching Buyers Using LinkedIn InMail

10:45 a.m.

• Interactive Q&A session (live demo on screen)
• Regular Break

11:15 a.m.

• Measuring Profitability of Leads Captured on LinkedIn
• Micro-Targeting B2B Leads Using LinkedIn Ads
• Monitoring Companies for News You Can Use
• LinkedIn Groups As Lead Generation Tools: The Right and Wrong Way

11:55 a.m.

• Interactive Q&A session (live demo on screen)
• In-Room Stretch Break

12:10 p.m.

• Starting and Curating Your Own LinkedIn Group to Generate Leads
• Secret Ninja Tips Only the LinkedIn Pros Know
• Going Pro and Paying for More Access: Pros and Cons

12:40 p.m.

• Interactive Q&A session (live demo on screen)
• In-Room Stretch Break

1:00 p.m. — MasterClass ends; Tod is available the rest of the day for informal “hallway questions”

But it’s not over when the four hours ends — your attendees will walk away with:

• a full copy of Tod’s slides with room for notes
• worksheets to connect and calculate LinkedIn activity to lead profitability
• a ten-page special report about finding and closing B2B on LinkedIn
• access to Tod’s library of LinkedIn tutorial videos

If you’re interested in having Tod present this MasterClass to your company, association conference, or corporate meeting, just fill in the form below:

Still, there are so many types of dress styles out there on the speaking circuit. I finally did a little research into the different styles of everything from business casual to resort casual. Let’s go from best-dressed to least-dressed. No, wait, least-formally dressed.

NOTE: I am no expert in women’s clothing, so this post only applies to men. If you know of a similar post for women, let me know and I’ll link it here.

“Full Business Attire”

Sometimes this is referred to as “Suit and Tie” and it means exactly what it says — something you’d expect a high-end lawyer to wear. Clients aren’t expecting you to wear expensive brands necessarily, just fit in with, say, a bunch of accountants at a banking convention (pre-cocktail reception, of course). Go for a dark-blue or black suit jacket. You do have one of those, right? If not, get a good one. Spend some money to get it tailored properly then wear it for the next 20 years. (We guys have it so good when it comes to hair and clothing.) Wear a simple tie — one colour or a simple pattern. And a white or light-coloured shirt. For slacks, make sure it matches your suit colour exactly and add a very sharp crease.

“Shirt and Tie”

Next level down is Shirt and Tie. This is, essentially, the same as Full Business Attire, just minus the shirt. If you’re asked to speak in Shirt and Tie attire, never, ever, roll up the sleeves of your shirt. Wear a suit jacket into the room and take it off when you sit down at a table or are about to present. Don’t take it off on-stage. Arrive on-stage with your jacket off. Leave it at the head table, behind the black curtain, or whatever. Same shirt, tie, and slacks as above.

I suggest adding a tie for Business Casual

“Business Casual”

This is probably the most common attire request I get from clients — it’s also the least understood by most people. Business Casual does not mean casual. It does not mean jeans, even if they’re nice. Here’s the secret: It still means Shirt and Tie for you! The main difference between Shirt-and-Tie attire and Business Casual attire is what the audience will be wearing. They might indeed be wearing dress shirts with no tie or a golf shirt, but you should still dress up. In your role as the presenter, Shirt-and-Tie and Business Casual should mean the same thing. The only other differences here is that I’d say it’s okay to roll your sleeves up (only to the elbow and never past) and here you can wear beige- or light-coloured khakis.

“Smart Casual”

Okay, back to the jacket for a moment — this is the time you’d want to wear a blazer or a sports jacket. It still needs a collared shirt and dress trousers. Depending on the industry and country you’re in, a tie is usually optional. I usually don’t wear one if the attire is Smart Casual. Here, you can use less formal shoes like clean loafers but never sandals or running shoes.

“Resort Casual”

Often, I’m asked to speak at nice resorts — especially if I’m helping a group of senior leaders and CEOs understand how to manage a social media crisis. Many times, the client will request Resort Casual attire for speakers. This is code for “You don’t need a tie.” Here, aim for the ‘well-dressed golf player’ look. Nice slacks and a casual but professional shirt. It does not mean you can wear shorts (never wear shorts on-stage) or a busy Hawaiian shirt.

“Cool, You Know, Like Young Looking”

Seriously, I get asked this from time to time. I really have nothing to offer here. Like every guy, my wardrobe consists of about eight items that I wear until they require duct tape to keep together.¹ The only time you should even consider wearing something other than the above is if your speech topic or your personal brand lends itself to something less formal. But think very carefully before doing it. Try it out at pro-bono speaking events and ask the client for honest feedback.

In short, always dress one level up from what the client asks of you. If they say shirt-and-tie only, wear a suit jacket. If they say business-casual, wear a shirt-and-tie.

1. Sadly, I am actually serious about that. When I went camping this past weekend, I wore jeans that needed a duct tape patch to keep them together at the knee.

Tod will illustrate how to set measurement ROI “markers” up using free Internet tools, tie those metrics directly into your campaign, and how to report a campaign’s return-on-investment to senior management.

“Tod Maffin is one of the most dynamic and insightful social media and technology visionaries of his time. His natural charm and witty humor had the audience in stitches. Many people said they liked his presentation better than our other keynote speaker (Malcolm Gladwell!), which speaks for itself. Tod’s approach guarantees that your audience will walk away feeling inspired and ready to take action.”
Lindsay Smith, F5 Expo

I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be doing a rare webinar later this month. Details:

So you’ve got a Facebook page and you’re tweeting occasional specials. Isn’t it about time you add fuel to your existing social media efforts and start to convert clicks to real buyers walking into your store?

In this information-packed session, you’ll learn how to drive increased foot traffic to your retail storefront using the latest ROI-producing tools like:

• Twitter e-couponing strategies
• Foursquare location-based customer loyalty campaigns
• Mobile check-in promotions
• Facebook-based customer VIP email list-building
• Group couponing
• Review sites (Yelp, UrbanSpoon, etc.)
• and more

You’ll learn step-by-step how to launch an online campaign targeting your exact customer profile, and how to measure which social media methods are driving the strongest in-store traffic.

THIS WEBINAR IS NOW OVER.

Can blind luck be reproduced? Absolutely, says Tod Maffin.

Today’s viral campaigns may seem like jackpots in a one-in-a-million lottery, but it turns out they are well within the reach of any marketing team’s grasp. All it takes is knowing the secret ingredients behind some of the world’s most talked-about campaigns.

Download PDF

By reverse-engineering each element of a successful viral campaign in your industry, Tod Maffin will show your audience the key markers that can launch a campaign into the viral stratosphere — markers that can be programmed into the smallest budgets.

He will literally “deconstruct” a viral campaign, piece by piece, then show your group how to re-assemble a campaign for their own organization.

And, using his ASSURED ROI™ methodology, he’ll detail for your attendees each of the seven action steps required for launching an impactful and measurable viral campaign.

You will never look at a viral campaign again the same.

I used to keep my speech resources (contracts, notes from client calls, links to web resources, research, slides, etc.) in a bunch of different folders on my hard disk. Then, I’d change the system mid-way through the year because I thought I’d come up with a better way. Inevitably, I’d lose important stuff along the way.

I switched over to eSpeakers [free trial link here] several years ago and won’t ever go back.

eSpeakers is a powerful database made especially for professional speakers. It manages everything from travel details (hooks into Tripit.com via API), scheduling, details on your topic, number of attendees, contact info, package tracking (if you’re shipping books), expenses reporting, and tonnes more. If you have a number of common jokes or stories you tend to use in many of your gigs, this can even keep track of which ones you’ve told!

Here is a screen-by-screen walkthrough of the program.

This is the main screen, which contains the barebones information. The Status pulldown menu contains Lead, Hold, and Confirmed. Once you’ve put a date on hold, a secondary pulldown menu appears, letting you indicate how strong a hold is — a nice touch, if you have several potential clients interested in the same date.

The Bureau pulldown menu contains hundreds of speakers’ bureaus, and the list grows all the time. If you get presentations from a number of agencies, this will help you keep track of which ones give you the most business.

The Notes section below automatically references every change you make in the database, and you can also add notes manually, like each contact you have with the client.

The Contacts page is pretty straight-forward. You can have it automatically populate the field from your computer’s existing address book, and there’s a place for the details of your pre-event client call.

The Travel tab is very detailed, letting you input both air and ground transportation details. One very nice touch is that if you use TripIt.com for your business travel, eSpeakers will automatically import all your details in from that site. Very handy indeed.

The Action list is, essentially, a to-do list for the event. You can create different action lists for each stage of the pipeline. For instance, when a date is listed as a “Lead” in my database, my action list is pretty small — contact the prospect, forward their contact info to my agent, then follow up periodically. When you convert an engagement from Hold to Confirmed, different actions are required. eSpeakers comes with a set of pretty standard actions, but they are easily customizable (as I have done, above).

When an action becomes due, you get an email that morning.

The lists generate action dates based on the event date itself. So rather than entering due dates automatically, it will set them based on proximity to the event date — for instance, one week prior to the event, my system will prompt me to email my bio to the person introducing me. Two months after the event, I double-check to be sure I’ve been paid.

Unfortunately, for now the action list only lives in the database and can’t update any of the popular online task managers like Toodeloo or Remember The Milk.

There is, of course, a place to track the fee, the agency commission, and taxes. If you sell books, CDs, or other products at the event, there’s a place for you to record how many sales you made, and a spot for you to track the shipment of those items to the venue.

If you speak a lot and sell a lot of products, you could export this data to an Excel spreadsheet, then run any kind of calculations, such as which bureaus book you at events which generate the most number of product sales. Lots of number-crunching possibilities here.

The Custom tab comes pretty much empty, with ten short (one-line) fields and four longer entry fields. You can customize the field names to your own needs. This is how I’ve customized mine: The name of the agent who booked the event, the contract number, and so on.

I like to track the industry name (e.g., Human Resources) to be able to provide me with a simple year-end look at revenues generated from each industry. This can help me know which areas industries it might be more profitable for me to focus on in the future.

It’s also helpful for me to know who the keynote sponsor is so that if it’s Microsoft, I can avoid telling Bill Gates jokes.

The Library tab is where your documents live. In the top section, you can upload the contract, notes, conference graphic images, or really any small document. (Unless your slide deck is pretty small, I’ve found those files to be a little too large to be handled in this area.) Like the rest of the data, this lives online in eSpeakers’ database.

The real power, though, lies in the bottom templates section. You create a mail-merge Word document and it will fill in all the information it needs from the fields in your database — even your customized short and long fields from the Custom tab.

As you can see above, I have a Word template for the first time I contact them (“I’m glad to hear we’ll be working together…” then a few other templates. When you click “Merge For This Event,” Microsoft Word (and, sadly, only Word for now) opens and fills in the details. I then just copy the letter to my clipboard and paste it into an email. (Kind of wish it could open up in a simple text editor, since Word is overkill for an email.)

Finally, the Misc tab contains the name of the presentation, how you should dress, audience size, whether the general public can attend, and whether this presentation would qualify for your Certified Speaking Professional designation.

My favourite section in the whole database, though, lives at the bottom of the Misc. tab. If there are certain stories or jokes or case studies you tend to re-use in different presentations, this will let you tick those off to indicate you used it. That way, when you’re invited back to speak three years later, you’ll know not to repeat the same material!

eSpeakers is a great program which has totally helped me keep my speaking engagements organized. It’s not cheap, coming in at $74.95 per month (or $809 annually), but for many professional speakers, this is a fraction of a single event and more than pays itself off in the long run.

You can get more information from the site by signing up for a free 30-day trial account.

* Disclosure: The link above will give you a special discounted rate and me an affiliate commission.

I’ve been lucky to have been speaking professionally since 1997 (when I was nearly chased off stage by the audience of teachers for suggesting the model of classrooms segregated by ages was outdated). Along the way, I’ve made my share of mistakes on the circuit.

Here are ten things that I wish I had known when starting out:

Attend as much of the conference as possible.

If your schedule permits it, be there for as much of the event as you can. Even if you have to cover hotel and other costs on your own dime. Clients really appreciate it when you’re up to speed on what’s been presented earlier, so you can tailor your comments to make the day feel more seamless for attendees.

Though it doesn’t happen often, occasionally a speaker before you will use similar material — you’ll want to remove or change that material in your own presentation. By total fluke once, a speaker after me happened to select the same case study I presented and for five minutes basically duplicated what I’d already said. I guess the event organizer thought it would be too awkward for someone to let him know, so he continued and pretty much lost the audience for the remaining hour he had after that.

I also like to stay after my presentation as well. This is prime time to connect individually with attendees who may have been too shy to ask a question in session.

Really, there’s no downside to attending the whole event if you can.

Ask to speak to groups in the same city.

If you’re looking to promote yourself and get more gigs, when you have your first conversation with the organizer ask them if there are any local business groups who they’re connected to that you might be able to speak to (without fee) when you’re in the city. Often there’s a marketing association, Rotary group, or Chamber of Commerce that would be more than happy to host you to present one of your prepared keynotes to their group. They get great value, and more times than not there’s someone there who is connected to a group that has a budget for pro speakers. If nothing else, you can collect business cards to add to your newsletter.

Record your pre-event client calls.

Of course, it goes without saying to always have at least one pre-event call with the event organizer. In that call you’ll confirm details like the time they want you there for an A/V check, how long they want you to speak for, expected attire, and so on. I spend a lot of time with them learning about specifically who’ll be in the audience — main age groupings, gender split, and what their jobs are.

I used to do the calls while trying to take notes, but I’m just not that skilled at it. I always insist on placing the call (as opposed to them calling me) so that I can call with Skype and use the great Call Recorder app to record the conversation. And I do not take notes during the call — I just focus on the conversation. The goal is to extract as much information as you think you’ll need down the road when putting the presentation together.

Don’t hand out copies of your slides.

Almost always, someone will ask for a copy of your slides. I almost never give them out. This is for two main reasons:

1. Most of my slides are images, not text. A copy of the slides would be meaningless without the commentary.
2. I use a lot of licenced stock photography and video in my slides. I’ve licenced them for presenting it to a group, not for distributing them to others.

Don’t forget that sometimes people want your PowerPoint/Keynote slides so they can basically give your presentation back at their company. Wouldn’t you rather they hire you to give the presentation, instead of giving them part of what they’d need to do your job?

If they insist on getting a copy, don’t put the slides up on your site. Instead, collect their business card and, when you email them the deck, ask them if they’d like to join your newsletter.

Give them something in exchange for their email address.

Though I don’t usually give out my slide decks, I do prepare a PDF document with some notes on what I presented. It’s often about four or five pages long, contains a summary of some highlights, links to things I presented, and so on.

At the end of my speech, I’ll invite them to drop their business card off on a table near me and will email this document to them and add them to my newsletter mailing list. (Always be sure to disclose that they’ll be signed up to your list in exchange for getting the summary, but that they can unsubscribe with a single click at any time.)

Keep a separate copy of each slide deck.

I used to have one basic deck of slides for each presentation, and I’d customize it and save it as the latest version. But this meant that I couldn’t go back years later and see the exact slides I presented to a client. If you have a main deck, open it then save it as a separate file for that client alone.

Record every single presentation you give.

Though most of my clients and audiences don’t realize it, I record the audio of every presentation I give. That way, if I ever need to go back and hear something, I can.

Besides helpful for listening back to yourself so you can improve, it may also help resolve more difficult situations. One time, a client complained, saying an audience member was offended because she heard me use the racially charged “n”-word; I was able to go back and reassure her I’d actually mumbled the word “figure.”

You don’t need any fancy equipment or hookups to the room’s sound system for this. Just start an audio recording going (I use QuickTime) in the background when you leave your computer on the lectern and let it capture whatever it hears through the mic. Even if you don’t speak at the lectern, it picks up the sound system fine. Then convert it to MP3, put it in that event’s folder, and forget about it until you need it.

Backup, Backup, Backup!

This goes without saying, but it surprises me how few speakers have redundant backups. Just last month, I was keynoting a conference and had to go on stage early because the presenter before me couldn’t boot her computer and she had no accessible backup.

Here are the backup methods I use and recommend:

• Turn on auto-backups in your presentation software, that way you always have two copies of your slides; in case your computer crashes while saving it, you’ll always have the most recent uncorrupted version.
• Sign up to Backblaze — it’ll back up everything on your hard disk automatically without you prompting it. It’s only $5 a month. Backblaze is the only system like this I found which can restore a Mac file to a PC and vice versa, if that’s important to you.
• Before leaving, upload the slides to Dropbox.com or something similar.
• Finally, if you’re on a Mac, tell Keynote to also save an additional copy as a PowerPoint presentation and upload that to Dropbox.com too.

But backups aren’t just for files — I carry my own backup wireless mic, fresh batteries, and a separate cheap GSM cell phone, so that in the event mine craps out I just have to pop my SIM card into the new phone and I’m back in business again.

Carry a paper introduction at all times.

Every once in a while, the only introduction I get is something like “And now, here’s our next speaker, Tod Maffin.” Ugh.

The introduction you receive prior to taking to the podium is more important than many speakers realize. It’s what establishes credibility in the minds of your audience. A bad introduction can have your audience write you off as a know-nothing before you even utter a single word.

I prepare a separate introduction for each client (the introductions vary and highlight different parts of my career depending on the topic I’m speaking about) and be sure to meet the person giving the introduction. Nowadays, I just give it to them without asking if they already have one. Always better that they use your material than something they’ve come up with on their own.

Have hidden stat and screen-shot slides

Every single one of my slide deck contains slides that almost never see the light of day. They’re charts or stats that back up some point I make in the main presentation, and screen-shots of web sites I mention.

They’re there because every so often, during a Q&A session, someone will want you to elaborate on a point you made. It really blows the audience mind when you can jump to one of these slides to bring up.

It takes some learning in PowerPoint or Keynote to do this, but it’s well worth the effort.

What are some of your lessons learned on the speaking circuit?

I notice that some of my social media friends in Vancouver have put together an excellent day tomorrow called WordCamp (a day about WordPress). There are sessions on using WordPress as a CMS, being curious for a living, SEO tips, and the inimitable Dave Olsen presenting “Art and Technology Are Old Pals.”¹

I want to lovingly offer some constructive feedback to both their day and a trend in Camps I’ve noticed.

Are Camps Getting Too Expensive?

Tickets for the Vancouver event are $55 for the day. This surprised me. Generally, Camps in other areas/topics are free or priced low enough for most people to attend. Obviously, nobody’s making a profit here — the organizers are well-respected peeps in the local social media scene who donate a lot of time to various causes.

The Vancouver event includes a couple of coffee breaks, lunch, swag, and a social following the day. I’m not sure how much these cost, but my sense of Camps is that they’re meant to be an alternative to larger commercial conferences where tickets for a similar day might run several hundred dollars.

Are Camps Getting Too Organized?

But more to the point, I would argue that despite the title, the Vancouver event isn’t really a “camp” by the usual definition — self-organized on the day of the event.

Wikipedia’s definition:

“[Camps are organized by] sessions proposed and scheduled each day by attendees, mostly on-site, typically using white boards or paper taped to the wall…. BarCamps are based on simplified variations of Open Space Technology (OST), relying on the self-organizing character of OST.”

Vancouver’s WordPress tomorrow has a fantastic pre-set lineup — but does that not inherently make it not a Camp, by most definitions?

Last year, I trained to be an Open Space facilitator. BarCamps borrow heavily from Open Space. Their success is primarily based on the fact that those who attend drive the curriculum.

Do Camps Need a Mid-Course Correction?

Obviously, there is no official Camp company which protects its trademark. The use of “Camp” in an event name can be used by anyone, regardless of how the event is structured, how much it costs, and so on.

But perhaps events which are priced more than, say $20 or so, and those which have a pre-set agenda, shouldn’t use the “camp” designation?

What do you think?

1. Locals still talk about Dave’s über-inspiring “Fuck Stats. Make Art” presentation at Northern Voice a couple of years ago for which he received a lengthy standing ovation.

The basics of the presentation focused on what “it” was — you know, that little something, that thing on the end of your tongue, that makes you know if you like a radio piece or personality or if you don’t. We all know if a host has It, but I tried to outline exactly what It was so one could duplicate it. Here is how I defined It:

• It is intimate. You are speaking directly into someone’s ears — even more so when they’re using earbuds… you can whisper to them. Radio listening is almost always done today by one person at a time; families don’t gather around the radio any more. And yet so many podcast hosts talk as if they’re speaking to a room — they use a hyped voice, or they call their audience “everyone.” Remember, you are only speaking to one person. There may be thousands of these one-person audiences, but aim to speak to just one.
• It breathes. One big mistake that many beginning podcasters, radio reporters, or audio editors make is they edit out the um’s and ah’s, and the long reflective breaths that sometimes inteview guests make. Unless they are completely distracting, you should aim to leave breath in. Breath is emotional punctuation. It gives richness to the words being spoken. One long, thoughtful breath taken before answering a tough question can say so much more than just the answer.
• It seeks the Universal Truth. The great radio shows, like This American Life, are always seeking a Universal Truth in their stories. It’s not enough to report the flow of what happened — try to find out why it happened and what your characters learned from it. In short, great stories give us pause for reflection. Great storytellers draw out those moments of reflection and give us the space to reflect.
• It takes time. It’s said that the best portrait photographers throw away the first few rolls of film they’ve shot with the subject. Why? Because in those first minutes, the subject isn’t as relaxed or comfortable with the photographer, so they appear stiff and uneasy. The documentary filmmaker Errol Morris is famous for interviewing people for hours at length, even if he’s only going to use a short clip, because he knows the longer one stays with a person, the more comfortable they’ll feel, the more they’ll tell you, and so on.
• It is everywhere. Always take your digital recorder with you, because amazing audio will happen when you least expect it. Even if you’ve got a podcast coming up but no ideas on what to talk about, just look around, take in your surroundings, examine the patterns you do each day. Content is everywhere if you know how to find it.
• It does not abuse music. Great music under a podcast should sound like the scoring of a film — like harmony to the melody of the words. Avoid recognizable songs because your listeners’ mind will be transported from your narrative directly into whatever memories those lyrics evoke. Avoid songs with words that “comment on” what you just said — for instance, don’t play “Life Is a Highway” just because you finished talking about hitchhiking. It’s predictable and a cliché.
• It is phony. Realize that the best storytelling employs a lot of tools to make the  a podcast or radio story really come alive. It’s okay to add a pause where an interview guest thinks. It’s okay to “act” while reading a script — in fact, it’s very much your job to make that script come alive.

Rob Cottingham, who pens the hilarious Noise to Signal cartoon, was in the audience of my session and did up this great cartoon summary of my points:

Tod Maffin and Malcom Gladwell have been selected as the two keynote speakers at the upcoming F5 Expo in Vancouver. Hear Tod’s story of how he went from being an always-on multi-millionaire dotcom executive to crashing into depression and addiction. A story of hope and recovery, with a lesson to everyone in the tech industry; Tod will outline his five key tools to surviving in the techno-busy lifestyle.

More about Tod’s keynote • Register Now

Email marketing is one of the most effective tools, with one of the highest returns on investment, yet so few companies do it right. (Or at all.)

Let Tod Maffin show you the ins and outs of email marketing — from the very basics, right through to advanced techniques like click-weighted A/B testing, and integrating your newsletter directly into your web site.

He’ll show you how to get subscribers the right way, or double the number of followers you already have. This isn’t a high-level 30,000 ft view of email marketing and its place in the world. These are fast and effective tips to make sure every effort you spend in email marketing returns many, many more.

ALL-MORNING SEMINAR
This Wednesday, January 20
UBC Robson Square, Vancouver
LIMITED SEATS AVAILABLE!

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SOLD OUT!
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Draft Workshop Agenda

Wednesday, January 20, 2009 • 9:30 a.m. • UBC Robson Square, 800 Robson Street, Vancouver

Part I: The Basics

• Starting your first email newsletter
• Using a provider vs doing it yourself
• How to get subscribers
• How to craft a subject line that your recipients will respond to
• Promoting your newsletter
• The “no-effort newsletter” — merging your newsletter and your blog
• How often should I send?
• About using a purchased mailing list
• Sending in advance, and setting up a regular automated schedule
• Complete screen-by-screen walkthrough of Mailchimp.com
• What to write and how to find material
• Sending coupons for offline (“real world”) redemption
• Giving your newsletter a professional design in two minute
• Personalizing your newsletters (“Dear Tod,” instead of “Dear newsletter subscriber”)

Part II: The Secrets

• 14 tips to increasing your open rate
• Integrating your newsletter directly with your web site without being a programmer
• Boost your open rate using A/B testing (via name, subject line, or date/time)
• Tying newsletter-opens directly to purchases or lead generation
• Staying out of spam folders
• Using Google Analytics to track your newsletter’s success
• Using plug-ins to connect your newsletter to your WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, or Movable Type CMS
• Segmenting your newsletter for stronger personalization — send only to specific sub-groups
• Create auto-responders that automatically send content to your subscribers without you lifting a finger
• Keeping it Legal: Staying within the bounds of the CAN-SPAM act
• Affiliate marketing: Earn cash with your newsletter with a single link
• Integrating Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn into your newsletter
• Integrating events registrations and surveys right in the newsletter
• Integrating other services, such as Salesforce, Freshbooks, HighRise, PayPal, and more

Part III: No Question Is a Stupid Question

• Lively Q&A session, where every question is answered and discussed among attendees.

Every attendee will receive a workbook with a summary of content covered, and access to a private web page full of resources, links, and a summary of the workshop content.

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The Complete Assured ROI™ Package

If you want to get full value out of this workshop, make sure you register for the Complete Assured ROI™ package. Only FIVE Complete Assured ROI™ Packages are available.

• Admission to Blazingly Effective Email Newsletters workshop (see details above)
• Unlimited telephone coaching before sending your first campaign
  
• Comprehensive review of first two email newsletter drafts ($300 value)
• Video of workshop (in MP4 format) ($79 value)
• A copy of Assured ROI: Blazingly Effective Email Newsletters e-book ($19 value)
• Certificate for sixty minutes of social media coaching/instruction — use for your business, your personal Facebook page, or whatever! ($150 value)
• Exclusive advance notice of upcoming Tod Maffin seminars — ability to buy before general public
  
• Lifetime discount for any of Tod’s public Assured ROI™ series workshops on social media
• One year membership in forthcoming social media business membership site ($199 value) launching mid-January 2010
• Copy of Understanding the Facebook Generation 16-page e-book ($9.95 value)
  
• Promotion of your newsletter to more than 8,000 people via Tod Maffin’s newsletter, Facebook profile, LinkedIn proffile, and Twitter account (immeasurable value)
  
• One year membership in the Assured ROI™ Braintrust Forums (launching mid-January 2010)
• (That’s $756.95 in bonus value, all included with this package.)

Get alerted when I hold this workshop in your city.
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Have you ever been frustrated by vague seminars that promise you social media results but don’t deliver? Perhaps the presenter focused on the “shiny objects,” told you how you have to “be one with the conversation” without showing you how to do that and make money, generate leads, reduce attrition, or whatever your business goals are?

Wouldn’t you rather spend your time planning a return on your social media investment, than learning how to re-colour a Twitter avatar?

As a former CEO of a publicly traded company, Tod Maffin approaches social media from a business point-of-view. Using his Assured ROI™ methodology, he’ll show you how to ensure that you earn measurable, real, bottom-line results from your social media strategies. No 50,000-foot viewing here. Only simple, understandable, and measurable strategies.

Want to see the whole 90-minute keynote presentation?

You are view­ing a selected por­tion of a longer keynote pre­sen­ta­tion I give called “Tweet Warfare: Protecting Your Brand from Online Attacks.” (Clicking won’t stop the video; it will open a new page up.)

This keynote is for any pub­lic rela­tions or com­mu­ni­ca­tions per­son in an orga­ni­za­tion or asso­ci­a­tion, or really any­one who val­ues their brand on the Internet.

How do you see the whole thing? If you have an event where you’d like me to present the full 90-minute keynote pre­sen­ta­tion, please check my avail­abil­ity and/or con­tact me.

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Social media futurist Tod Maffin shows your meeting attendees how to join the battle — dominate market space online, access more qualified leads, pinpoint-measure your marketing efforts, and immediately counter negative online attention.

In his new fast-paced, entertaining keynote presentation, Maffin will let your attendees in on the micro-marketing secrets previously used only by “the digerati” on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and corporate blogs. The latest, most measurably-effective branding tools that organizations can use online — demonstrated step-by-step and illustrated for startling effect.

• Watch a portion of this presentation
  in “SWARM Communications: Protecting Your Brand When Good Buzz Goes Bad Online.”

Realizing that warfare defense is as critical as strategy, content includes deploying counter-measures against online attacks of your brand — whether from comment flames, hashtag attacks on your Twitter feed, blog trolls, or more.

In the true Tod Maffin form that’s won him praise from hundreds of meeting planners worldwide, there are no high-level theoretical overviews here, no boring bullet points, and no technical jargon. Your attendees already understand the social media basics these days; this presentation takes them to the next level — past understanding and directly into strategic, measurably effective use.

At the end, each of your attendees will get immediate access to a private online resource — branded with your conference or meeting logo — complete with presentation notes, worksheets, and step-by-step walkthroughs of each strategy demonstrated on stage. This secure online resource is fully accessible via Blackberry, iPhone, and nearly all other mobile devices.

For more information or to book a date, contact Tod now.